Crimson Kiss

32 History Gifted

I stared at Frank, my jaw open. How was this possible? How did Frank know about the Coven. As a High Priestess, a leader, one is sworn to secrecy. You are not allowed to speak to non-Coven members about the Coven. Ever. It amazed me that Frank would open up about this, but I understood why. Now begged the question, if he knew about the cause of my Mother's death/murder. I opened my mouth to speak, but Frank looked up at me suddenly, his face serious but white as snow. He looked like he was about to be sick.
"Please tell me, you are staying away from them!" he said.
I glanced at Ezra who shook his head at me. What was I supposed to do? "Dad-"
"Have they asked you to join them?" he demanded.
I sighed. "Dad, I had to take the position-"
Frank slumped back in his seat. "No, baby, why?" he almost sobbed.
I looked back at Ezra, lost for words. "Tell me what you know!" I begged him, walking to sit next to him. Frank sighed and looked up at Ezra and grimaced.
"This is a family matter, Ezra," he said shortly. "You should-"
I placed a hand gently on my dad's arm. "Dad, he can stay," I assured him. "Ezra knows!"
Frank sighed and shook his head. "When the Coven finds out-"
"They already know!" Ezra said quickly. "I have been to the Goddesses Temple a few times."
Frank's jaw dropped. "How?" he demanded. "They do not let anyone inside unless they have the goddesses gift or Hunter blood!" I looked up at Ezra now, panicked. There was no way Frank could find out about Ezra or his family. Both my Coven and Ezra's Coven would kill us both, causing an all out war. Frank suddenly stood to his feet, making me look up at him.
"Ezra, could you please come back later?" he asked him, not looking at Ezra as he walked to the kitchen. I heard a drawer open and then close.
"Sure," he said and looked back at me, his face worried and confused.
I smiled at him. "I will call you later," I promised.
Ezra glanced at the kitchen door and then leaned in to peck my lips quickly. When he leaned away, his eyes were stained with silver-white Hunger. I pulled him in and kissed his, hard.
I herd Frank's footsteps headed toward us, and before I could open my eyes, Ezra was gone, having closed the door quietly behind him just as Frank came back with a set of keys in his hands. He looked stressed and worried.
"Where did your friend go?" he asked me.
I shrugged. "He will be back later," I said and nodded to the keys in his hand. "What are those for?" Frank looked down at the rusted, old fashioned key in his hand. He turned away from me.
'Follow me, hon," he said.
I followed Frank through the Kitchen and out the back door. He rounded the corner and walked to his green pick up truck and waved for me to follow him. I hesitated when my phone buzzed in my pocket. I looked at it and it was a text from Marcus, saying he was on his way to see the attempted murder survivor. I rolled my eyes. Freya was capable of plenty, but not of trying to kill someone. I shoved my phone into my handbag and heaved myself up into the truck.
Frank did not speak as he drove.
"Where are we going?" I asked him.
Frank smiled at me.
"Like I said before, I should have told you this when you first arrived, or at the very least, when you told me you were practicing. There is a reason why Tate wants you in his Coven and as his Priestess-"
"I haven't told Ezra this yet, but I do not plan on going through with it. I have a plan-"

"Trust me, Tate will know what it is, if doesn't already, Ivy!" Frank warned me and I could hear the threat in his voice, the warning. I swallowed. How dangerous could one man be? He was not a King, just a Warlock.
"First thing you should know, is that a Witches Coven, does not have a Priest or male leader. It is the Goddesses will. She is divine and all things pure. She is the one who fixes things when the world become unbalanced."
I shook my head. "And you know all of this how?" I asked him. "Because mom told you?"
Frank nodded. "And it got her killed. She fell in love with me, got pregnant and when the time came for her to perform some kind of ritual, she refused and the Coven sent people looking for her. She fled with you when you were two," he said and pulled onto an old, dirt path, leading away from the suburbs and deep into the forest. About and hour passed and then Frank pulled to a stop in front of an old, rusted, vive covered iron gate. I gapped at Frank as he quickly spenk from the truck and opened it and hurried back to his truck.
"Where are we going?" I asked him, getting a little creeped out that he was so quiet and calm. Frank followed a an old warped cobble stone path up around the bend and passed a great, big willow tree and came to a stop before an old, ran down house. When he shut the truck off, I jumped out. Someone, I knew. There was Magic here. I could feel it. It was almost like the first day of school, when I had seen Ezra, staring at me from across the hallway. Not the whole time-slow down thing, just the power feeling of it. It was a strange, odd feeling, something I was not to familiar with. But in the same way as it was odd, I felt safe here, relaxed, welcomed.
"What is this?" I asked him, looking around the grounds. Frank walked up the stone steps and unlocked the door to the massive house. I stood there a moment, taking the house in. It was huge. And old. Sometime early Victorian, I would assume. Frank jogged up the steppes and shoved a key in the front door. There was a smell of damp stones and wood wafting up into the air and I looked back up at Frank who stepped into the dark house, the shadows swallowing him up. He was quite for a moment and I waited, straining my ears.
"Dad?" I called, trying to see with the flashlight on my phone but it was no use. It was just to dark. I waited again, but Frank did not speak or come back outside.
"Frank!" I called, getting worried now.
A light switched on inside, suddenly revealing my father, standing in the middle of the room under a great chandelier. The entryway was round, fixed witn old fashioned bannisters and arches. The detailing in the wood was not something you saw anymore today.
"Come on in, Ivy," he said and walked away.
I sighed, looking around at all of the spider webs and dust. With a glance at my phone, I looked around the room, the dirt floor was lines with runes and odd markings. I crouched down to look at them more closely.
"Protection sigils. You mother put them there when we first moved in."
"Moved in?" I asked him. "Dad, what is this place?"
I turned to look at Frank who was standing behind me, looking down at the sigils I had just been looking at. "I understand why Tate wanted her. He made no effort to hide his feelings for her at when we were teenagers. Tate had been my best friend before he went after her. When we came back here, after you were born, this is where we lived, but I had to watch Tate controle your mother in anyway he could. I was powerless to do anything."
I shook my head. "Why?" I asked him. "It could not have all been because of the Coven. He was too young to become High Priest!"
Frank nodded. "Tate loved your mother. She, however, was with me and she refused him many times. When I had finally had enough, I told him to leave her alone. After High School, Tate just vanished. You mother and I went to college and got married and before we knew it, you came along. When we come back to Manhattan, with you in your mother's arms, she was informed by Delphine that Tate had become High Priest and soon sent people after her-"
I held up a finger quickly. "So Tate didn't want Mom," I told him. "He wanted her power. Because he was telling me how I was needed to help keep the Coven safe from-"
Frank held up a hand from behind his back. "Hunters," he said.
I felt my heart drop when I saw the dagger in his hand. I knew that dagger. It was the same one I Marcus had taken off the body outside my house. "That dagger-"
Frank nodded. "It is a Hunter's dagger, yes," he said and looked at it, rotating it in his hand.
"You, you mean you are a Hunter?" I asked him.
Frank sighed and nodded. "I am," he answered.
I backed away from him a little, to shocked to speak. "And Mom?" I whispered, looking up at him. "Did she know?"
Frank walked back to the wooden door and pulled it open. "Oh, she knew," he said and flipped on the light inside the second small room. Only it was not small. When I reached the threshold of the door, I stopped dead in my tracks. All over the walls and on cabinets were weapons and spell books. I was moving before I knew what I was doing. I reached a bookshelf and pulled a random book from it and skimmed through the pages. There were runes drawn in thick black ink, circling and winding around the page.
"So, what happened?" I asked and set the book down.
Frank sighed. "Simple," he said and walked around the small room. "Tate found out I had Hunter blood and wanted to use it against me. Try and win your mother for himself-"
I could not stop my outburst. "Tate killed her," I said.
Frank sighed and nodded. "I figured as much," he said. "I do not know him well, but Tate is not one to fight a clean fight. He will do anything he can to stay in power-"
"Hold on a second!" I said, sliding the book back on the table. "If tate knew who you are, then why hasn't he come after you?" It was not the only question I had. If Tate had killed my mother with a spell, could he be behind Old Lady Delphine's murder? Could he be behind the murders of the Witches? Could he be the one trying to set the Vampires up? And was he trying to use me to do it? Frank walked to stand before me, his eyes on my face.
"What is it?" he asked me. "You have the same look your mother had when she was worried about something. Or when she was trying to hide something from me!"
I shook my head quickly. Frank was already in enough danger because of me. There was no need to tell him about Ezra or anything else. I sighed, wondering of there was any spell work I would be able to use to help protect me from Tate.
"I know even less about Tate then you do!!" I reminded him. "Whenever I go to the Goddesses Coven, I am in and out, speaking to no one!" I sighed.
"Well, you have your mothers books now, so there is no need to fo back there!" Frank assured me. I laughed a little, looking around the small, dirt covered floor and cobwebs. "I can fix this placed up for you. Get you a desk in here, some gas lanterns?"
I smiled at Frank and nodded, looking back at him. "That would be great!" I told him and dusted off some dust from the bookshelf. Frank was quote for a moment. "Use this place as a sort of hideout, where you can do your Magic and not be bothered by anyone. You have an open, safe space to do it at now-"
I walked over to my dad and took his hands. "Dad," I sighed. "I have a plan! Tate will soon no longer be the High Priest of the Coven!"
I watched Frank's eyes become big and he shook his head. Before I could speak, my phone rang again. I sighed and fished my phone from my pocket. It was Ezra. I glanced at Frank and held up a finger. I had three missed calls aready from him. I answered the phone quickly.
'Ezra, I-" I began but he cut me off quickly. ?
"Where are you?" Ezra demanded.
I looked back at Frank. "My old family home," I said. "I will text you the address!"
I hung up and looked back at Frank who was now in the dining room while texting Ezra the address. Frank leaning on the table, looking over a piece of paper. I joined him and looked over his shoulder.
"What you go there?" I asked him.
Frank sighed. "The deed to this house," he said and handed me the pen. "It is yours now."
I raised my eyebrows, looking around the room again. "You giving me a house?" I demanded.
Frank laughed. "It is not just the house, that is the gift," he corrected me. "You mother placed a protection spell on these grounds. No one can find it unless they have been bound by this contract. All I need is a drop of your blood, from what your mother told me."
Frank handed me a dagger, carved with roses and thorns. I gripped the dagger and dragged it across the palm of my hand, across the scar tate gad given me. As soon as my blood hit the paper, it began to glow in a harsh, golden light, filling the room. Wind whipped through the bear house and the ground beneath me shook violently. I gasped and gripped the table beside me. Power rushed through me, and I could suddenly hear voices, echoing all around me. I looked up at frank, but his face was relatively calm, almost as of he could hear them to.
"Who are they?" I whispered as the voices faded.
Frank smiled and shrugged. "Your mother called them The Spirits. Messengers to the Goddess. Something my Mortal ears can not comprehend," he gave me a weak smile. "Now, the house in is your name. You may do with it as you see fit, but I am sure, your mother would have wanted you have this safe house. Especially now."
I looked at my feet now, my heart filling with sadness. "I miss her," I mumbled.
Frank dropped an arm around me and hugged me to his side. "Me too, kid," he sighed. "There are six bedrooms in this house, three full bathroom's, one in each of the three master bedrooms, two half bathrooms, a kitchen, a basement and a library-"
I turned to face Frank now. "Magic library?" I asked him.
Frank smiled and stalked off to the left and followed him quickly. "Your mother was nothing if not thorough. She wanted you to prepared of anything ever happened to her." I followed him down a narrow hallway and passed one of the bedrooms. It was empty, only the windows draped in long, heavy velvet covers and an old, moth eaten rug.
"I know it is not much, but she wanted-"
I turned to face Frank quickly. "No!" I assured him quickly. "This is perfect. I love it, Dad, thank you!" I watched a grin spread across Frank's face and I raised an eyebrow. Without a word, Frank turned and pushed open the two double doors behind him and stepped back for me to enter.
I walked into the geint room slowly, my jaw dropping to the floor and my eyes growing bigger and bigger every second. It was a library. A fully stocked library, filled with thick, old, dusty volume. I turned to Frank who was watching me, a smile on his face.
"I know I said I did not want you to be around Tate and I stand by that, however I want you to be able to defend yourself and know how to use your magic. I want you to be protected!"
"Don't worry about me, Dad," I promised. "I am perfectly safe here."
I had to fight the smile on my face for a moment. If Frank only knew how protected I was between four immortal Vampires and the powers of my Craft now stringer within me.